More In Your Life

Easy, BLT Bites are a hit at any holiday party

Photo by Amy Casey

Posted: Dec. 16, 2015 12:01 am

By AMY CASEY
Entertaining can be stressful. To make holiday parties less hectic, have a go-to appetizer in your recipe repertoire. BLT Bites are easy to make, fun to eat, and great tasting. They will be a hit at any Christmas or New Year's party this holiday season.It can be a daunting task to think of an appetizer to make for a party at your own home or at a family or friend's house. With long holiday to-do lists, spending hours in the kitchen preparing hors d'oeurves is just not in the cards. A perfect appetizer is easy to eat, beautiful to look at, delicious and relatively simple to make.BLT Bites are mini bacon, lettuce and tomato nibbles skewered on toothpicks. The local grocery store will have all that is needed to make the recipe that includes everyday ingredients.Prepping the ingredients all at once makes assembling the BLT Bites a breeze. Keep the mess at a minimum by cooking the bacon in the oven on a foil-lined baking sheet. To make it easy to skewer the bacon on the toothpick, bake it until just cooked but, still a little soft. If it is too crisp, it will crumble.Cutting out the bread rounds, stirring together the dill-spiked mayonnaise, tearing the lettuce leaves, and slicing the tomatoes is the only prep work needed. Have an assembly line of the prepped ingredients so that building the mini sandwiches on sturdy toothpicks is super simple.A large white platter is an ideal background for the brightly colored red and green BLT Bites. Plates, forks or knives are not required for these handheld morsels. Just cocktail napkins will do.With an easy to prepare yet original appetizer like BLT Bites, you will be spending more time enjoying the holidays and less time in the kitchen.BLT Bites
These one bite BLT sandwiches can be made up to four hours in advance. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.
Makes about 24
1 pound of bacon
1/3 cup mayonnaise
½ teaspoon dried dill
¼ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
6 to 7 slices of thin white bread
1 head of Boston Bibb lettuce
6 to 8 small tomatoes, such as plum or Campari
24 sturdy toothpicks
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cut each slice of bacon into three pieces. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil. Place bacon pieces on the sheet. Bake for about 10 to 13 minutes. Watch the bacon closely toward the end of the baking time. The bacon should be just cooked but, still slightly soft. Remove the bacon from the oven to a paper-towel-lined plate. The bacon will crisp up a little more while it cools.
In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, dill, onion powder, and garlic powder. Set aside.
Cut 2-inch rounds out of each slice of bread. There should be about 24 to 28 rounds. Set aside.
Tear the lettuce leaves into about two-inch-by-two-inch pieces. You will need 24 to 28 pieces of lettuce. Set aside.
Slice the tomatoes into about ½ inch slices and lay on a paper towel. You will need about 24 to 28 slices. Set aside.
To assemble the BLT Bites, spread about ½ teaspoon of the dill mayonnaise on one side of a bread round. Skewer the round on a toothpick with the mayonnaise side up. Slide a piece of the lettuce, a slice of tomato and a piece of bacon on the toothpick. Place on a large serving platter. Continue assembling the remainder of the BLT Bites in the same way.
Nutrition information per BLT Bite (values are rounded to the nearest whole number): 83 calories; 44 calories from fat (53 percent of total calories); 5g fat (1 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 11 mg cholesterol; 238 mg sodium; 5 g carbohydrate; 5 g protein; 1 g fiber; 1 g sugars.
Amy Casey, of Sparta, is a food columnist for the New Jersey Herald, personal chef, and recipe developer. See more of her recipes on her website www.amycaseycooks.com. Follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/amycaseycooks and on Twitter and Instagram at amycaseycooks. Email questions to amy@amycaseycooks.com.